Contacts:
Nick Cady, Legal Director, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463 
George Sexton, Conservation Director, KS Wild
Doug Heiken, Conservation and Restoration Coordinator
Meriel Darzen, Staff Attorney, Crag Law Center

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Logging Plan Violates Federal Law

Medford, OR — In response to a challenge brought by conservation organizations, on Friday a federal district court found that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the law with its “Integrated Vegetation Management” (IVM) program, which proposed aggressive logging in forest areas set aside for forest conservation.

The IVM project proposed logging in the Late Successional Reserves (LSR), areas endowed with the purpose of habitat protection. The Court found that the heavier commercial logging prescriptions contemplated in these reserved areas could result in long-term destruction of functioning older forest habitats in violation of BLM’s own management plan, and that “BLM cannot ignore that simply because it wants to increase commercial logging.” Findings at 18, 20.

“The BLM once again put its logging agenda above collaboration, fire resiliency, and wildlife habitat,” said George Sexton, KS Wild Conservation Director, “and the Court held them to account for ignoring science, the law and the public in their rush to log the LSRs.”

The agency attempted to justify the proposed widespread commercial logging by arguing that the logging would increase wildfire resilience. The Court noted that this proposition “received deep public disapproval and skepticism.” Findings at 28. Ultimately, the Court expressed “serious doubt upon the reasonableness” of this conclusion because there is “substantial evidence that BLM’s chosen logging prescriptions would not have the intended effect and would instead exacerbate fire issues.”  Findings at 28-29.  Specifically, the Court explained that relevant scientific studies have found that logging designed to create “open” conditions and the “gap creation” authorized by the BLM could create “highly flammable young stocks interspersed throughout the thinned units,” and could “increase fire hazard in these stands.” Findings at 28-29.

“Consistently, studies have concluded that the gap creation and logging to create ‘open’ conditions proposed here leads to worse fire outcomes on the ground,” said Cascadia Wildlands’ Legal Director Nick Cady. “Maximizing timber volume from our public forests is going to perpetuate wildfire risk for our region, but there is a clear opportunity for collaboration around lighter logging prescriptions that can help restore older forest habitats and reduce fire risk.”

The Court recognized this opportunity and found that “[g]iven the mutual affection for Oregon’s forests shared by all in this action, the Court is confident that dedicated collaboration will result in an effective solution.” Findings at 35. The Court noted that the agency’s plan included non-commercial thinning and prescribed fire, which it described as “proactive and admirable strategies directed across many high-risk areas.” Findings at 35. The conservation organizations that brought the challenge specifically excluded those treatments from the lawsuit and will continue to urge for their widespread implementation by land managers. As the Court noted: “Getting this project right could benefit southwestern Oregon for years to come, while getting it wrong may have devastating consequences across the landscape for fire behavior and wildlife habitat.” Findings at 30.

“We are heartened by the court’s recognition that logging that results in ‘massive canopy reduction’ within protected forests will cause long-term damage to old-growth ecosystems and may increase fire hazard. It’s time for BLM to stop seeing virtually every tree as a problem solved by logging,” said Doug Heiken of Oregon Wild.

While the Biden administration has acknowledged the importance of mature and old-growth forests as a bulwark against the worst impacts of climate change, as well as for their wildlife habitat, recreation and other conservation values, the Bureau of Land Management continues to propose reckless logging in many or our last remaining mature and old-growth forests. This inconsistency in stated goals and implementation needs to end.

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Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild, KS Wild and Soda Mountain Wilderness Council were represented by attorneys from Cascadia Wildlands and Crag Law Center.

Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands defends and restores Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets. The organization envisions vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, a stable climate, and vibrant communities sustained by the unique landscapes of the Cascadia bioregion. 

Oregon Wild’s mission is to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and water as an enduring legacy. Oregon Wild is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year.

KS Wild’s mission is to protect and restore wild nature in the Klamath-Siskiyou region of southwest Oregon and northwest California.

Soda Mountain Wilderness Council is dedicated to protecting and restoring wildlands and the outstanding biodiversity and important biological connectivity where the botanically significant Siskiyou Mountains join the southern Cascade Range in southwest Oregon and northwest California.

Through a unique model of “legal aid for the environment,” Crag Law Center provides free and low-cost legal services to people and organizations who are working on the ground to protect our environment, climate and communities. www.crag.org

The Court’s Findings and Recommendations can be found here. They will be reviewed by Senior U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken.
Plaintiffs’ complaint can be found here.
Photos are located here.

The post Press Release: Court Protects Old-Growth Reserves from Fed’s Logging Scheme first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contacts:
Nick Cady, Legal Director, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463 
Michael Dotson, Executive Director, KS Wild
Doug Heiken, Conservation and Restoration Coordinator, Oregon Wild

Medford, OR —Today a coalition of conservation organizations again filed a legal complaint challenging the Medford District Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) efforts to aggressively log forest stands located outside of Gold Hill, Oregon. The Rogue Gold Forest Management Project (“Rogue Gold”) authorizes heavy commercial logging within Late Successional Reserves, areas expressly set aside for old forest conservation. The BLM is targeting mature and old-growth forests that are fire-resilient and provide important habitat for at-risk wildlife species. BLM admits that the purpose of the heavier logging prescriptions being authorized is the generation of commercial timber volume despite locating these logging activities within areas set aside for conservation, called Late Successional Reserves.

In April of last year, conservation organizations previously challenged Medford BLM’s authorization of the Integrated Vegetation Management Project, which also called for heavy commercial logging in the Late-Successional Reserves. In the Rogue Gold project, BLM again proposes to implement the same heavy logging in the reserves but has since dropped the pretense that its more aggressive logging prescriptions would be beneficial for wildlife and fire, and admitted the purpose of the logging is to generate commercial timber volume.

“With IVM, BLM previously argued that this heavy commercial logging would be good for owls and fire safety for the surrounding community. The public, scientific organizations, and numerous conservation organizations vehemently disagreed and challenged that project,” said George Sexton, KS Wild Conservation Director. “While it is refreshing that BLM has abandoned this fake pretense and admitted that it is timber volume driving the more aggressive logging being proposed, it is does not make this logging any less illegal or worrisome.”

“BLM acknowledges that its logging will make fire issues worse for Oregon communities, degrade habitat and water quality, and remove some of the limited older forest we have left, but BLM has also long argued that its hands were tied by the Oregon & California Railroad Act from 1937,” said Nick Cady, Legal Director for Cascadia Wildlands. “Two appeal courts rejected this position last year, and just this Monday the Supreme Court declined to review that decision. BLM clearly has the discretion to manage these forests in the public interest. BLM needs to turn a new leaf and take its obligations to our communities seriously.”

The forests being targeted for logging in the Rogue Gold project are backyard forests for the Gold Hill and Rogue River communities. These areas are resilient, healthy, older forests that are designated as reserves for conservation, recreation, and water protection. While some aspects of the Rogue Gold project include restoration logging and prescribed burning, elements that could increase fire resilience of the area, Plaintiffs have narrowly focused their legal challenge on the heaviest of the commercial logging proposed by BLM, which will have negative consequences for fire resilience and protecting reserve values.

“Where the BLM is interested in real restoration, we are fully supportive,” stated Doug Heiken, Conservation and Restoration Coordinator for Oregon Wild, “but aggressively logging mature and old-growth habitat in the Late Successional Reserves that will increase fire hazard for the surrounding community is a very poor choice of priorities.”

The parties are represented by attorneys with Crag Law Center and Cascadia Wildlands.

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Additional photos of the Rogue Gold timber sale can be found here and are to be credited to Cascadia Wildlands.

The post Press Release: Groups Challenge BLM Commercial Logging in Conservation Reserve first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contacts:
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Erin Hogan, Crag Law Center

Federal Agency Plan Would Intensively Log Remaining Spotted Owl Reserves

Eugene, OR — Today, Oregon-based conservation organizations Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild challenged the Bureau of Land Management’s (“BLM”) Siuslaw Field Office’s plan to log 13,225 acres of public forests in the coast range foothills west of Eugene. The agency’s Siuslaw HLB (“Harvest Land Base”) Project will clearcut these mature and old-growth forests that border many communities and residences west of Eugene. The BLM admits that this logging will increase fire hazard risks, slope instability and landslide risks, and drinking water contamination for these communities, but dismissed concerns raised about these impacts as insignificant.

“The BLM cannot continue to chase timber volume production at the expense of our communities,” said Nick Cady with Cascadia Wildlands. “Not only are we losing the few older forest stands that remain in the coast range, but admittedly the agency is putting us at increased risk from forest fires and landslides, and jeopardizing water quality. The little timber volume being generated from these mature, public forests is just not worth it.”

The targeted forests are home to at least four federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed species: northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and Chinook and Oregon Coast coho salmon, along with listing candidate species the red tree vole, which is a candidate for ESA listing. Most of the forests slated for logging are mature and old-growth forests that provide suitable habitat for these species, but the agency dismissed impacts to these imperiled species as insignificant without any actual review of the impacts the logging would have on the ground. 

Many of the local residents strongly oppose the logging, as they believe its negative impacts–including drinking water contamination, increased wildfire hazard, loss of recreation opportunities, soil erosion, further road construction, and outright habitat destruction–strongly outweigh any benefits associated with timber production.

“If they remain standing, our public forests provide so many important public services, including clean water, habitat for fish & wildlife, climate stability, fire resilience, recreation and quality of life. Clearcut logging will sacrifice all these values, and for what? The private profits of a few in the timber industry. BLM has a responsibility to tell the truth but they are hiding the fact that the public is getting a rotten deal here,”  said Doug Heiken of Oregon Wild.

The lawsuit alleges violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, including failure to take the requisite “hard look” at environmental impacts and failure to conduct any site-specific analyses or prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. The BLM is required under federal environmental law to consider the negative impacts the proposed logging will have on our communities and weigh those impacts against the alleged benefits of timber volume generation logging. Many of the local residents strongly oppose the logging, which they believe will create that the negative impacts–including contamination of to their drinking water, increases in fire hazard, loss of recreation opportunities, soil erosion and stability, further road construction, and outright habitat destruction–that which elimination strongly outweighs any benefits associated with timber production.  

“The BLM is attempting to evade its legal obligation to consider and publicly disclose the impact these clearcuts will have on sensitive wildlife species, forest health, carbon storage and climate change, water quality, and wildfire hazard,” said attorney Erin Hogan. “The agencies tasked with managing our public lands must be accountable to the public they serve.”

The organizations are represented by attorneys from the Crag Law Center and Cascadia Wildlands.

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Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands is a 501c3 non-profit with over 12,000 members and supporters whose mission is to defend and restore Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets. We envision vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, a stable climate, and vibrant communities sustained by the unique landscapes of the Cascadia bioregion.  

Oregon Wild represents 20,000 members and supporters who share our mission to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and water as an enduring legacy. Our goal is to protect areas that remain intact while striving to restore areas that have been degraded.

Crag Law Center is a nonprofit environmental law center based in Portland, Oregon that supports community efforts to protect and sustain the Pacific Northwest’s natural legacy. Implementing a unique model of legal aid for the environment, Crag balances the scales of justice by offering free and low-cost legal services to people who are working on the ground to protect our environment, climate and communities.

The post Press Release: Conservationists Challenge Coast Range Logging Plan  first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contacts:
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Meriel Darzen, Crag Law Center

Conservationist Appeal ODOT’s Bill for Release of Public Records

Agency Billed Cascadia Wildlands $87,000 for Hazard Tree Removal Records

Portland, OR — Cascadia Wildlands appealed the $87,756.60 estimated bill issued by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) in response to the organization’s public records request seeking documents related to the agency’s hazard tree removal activities following the 2020 Labor Day fires.

ODOT is in the process of using hundreds of millions of federal and state dollars to remove hundreds of thousands of trees along public roads and public and private properties that burned the 2020 wildfires. Despite the considerable amount of taxpayer dollars at issue, and the impacts of these actions on Oregonians and Oregon’s public forests, ODOT largely failed to be transparent regarding its allocation of funds and its contracting process. This spring, individuals including several contractors and landowners with first hand knowledge came forward with allegations of mismanagement of the funds and excessive tree cutting. Considerable media coverage led to several state legislative hearings during which whistleblowers testified on the record to misdeeds including over marking of trees, unqualified individuals conducting tree marking, excessive cutting, and drug use on the job.

On April 1, 2021, Cascadia Wildlands submitted a public records request to ODOT. Under Oregon’s Public Records Law, “every person” has a right to inspect any nonexempt public record of a public body in Oregon. Cascadia requested records pertaining to hazard tree removal following the fall 2020 wildfires, including guidelines to be followed, the criteria for hazard tree removal and assessment, and information about the contracts and contractors. As is standard under Oregon law, Cascadia Wildlands — an Oregon-based non-profit organization with an over 20 year history of forest advocacy — requested a fee waiver. Public bodies, including ODOT, are statutorily required to consider and grant reasonable requests to waive or reduce fees associated with fulfilling a public record request if doing so is in the public’s interest “because making the records available primarily benefits the general public.” ODOT sent Cascadia an estimated bill of over $87,000 to provide the records and denied the fee waiver request. Today, Cascadia Wildlands appeals that denial to the Oregon Attorney General.

“Public records are just that: public and ODOT’s staff and activities are paid with public dollars,” said Nick Cady, legal director for Cascadia Wildlands. “ODOT’s refusal to reduce or waive fees and it’s outrageously high estimate demonstrate the agency is more interested in hiding its misdeeds than being transparent with the public the agency serves.”

Cascadia Wildlands is represented by the Crag Law Center in the appeal.

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Background

The 2020 wildfire season was one of the state’s most destructive on record. The largest block of fire, referred to as the Oregon Labor Day Wildfires, consisted of five fires on the western side of the Cascades that spread dramatically due to a historic windstorm. These fires took the lives of nine Oregonians, displaced thousands of individuals, burned more than 1.2 million acres of land, and destroyed more than 5,000 residential and commercial structures. In the wake of the 2020 wildfire season, Oregon began rehabilitation efforts, including cleaning up debris and hazardous materials.

To reach Oregon’s wildfire recovery goals, the state has assigned the Oregon Department of Transportation to lead the Oregon Debris Management Task Force. The task force also consists of the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Oregon’s wildfire debris clean-up process consists of two steps focusing on the safe clean-up and disposal of potentially harmful materials. In December 2020, ODOT completed step one, which addressed the clean-up of household hazardous waste removal. Step two, which consists of removing hazard trees, ash, and debris by state-hired contractors, began in December 2020 and is predicted to take six to eighteen months to complete. Hazard tree removal clears trees that can fall onto roadways, properties, and recreation areas where people frequent. Similarly, ash and debris removal consist of toxic ash and structural debris which must be removed to ensure safety before rebuilding can begin.

Currently, the total cost estimate of the debris clean-up is $622 million. The assessment includes $326 million for ash and debris removal and $295.7 million for hazard tree removal. Oregon and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will share the cost to fund the clean-up efforts. While Oregon funds will initially pay for clean-up, at least 75% of the hazard tree removal and structural debris removal is eligible for reimbursement by FEMA as long as the Oregon Debris Management Task Force complies with FEMA’s requirements of controlling costs, reducing waste, and eliminating fraud.

As the Oregon Debris Management Task Force and specifically ODOT and its contractors began implementing their plans to cut nearly 300,000 trees deemed as hazardous, members of the public grew concerned about the number of trees being cut along scenic highways, protected rivers, and secondary roads within the burn boundaries of 2020’s wildfires. Following Oregon Public Broadcasting’s exposé of ODOT’s mismanagement of post-fire roadside hazard tree removal and accusations by whistleblowers and industry leaders, Oregon Senator Jeff Golden, chair of the Senate Wildfire Recovery Committee, held several hearings requesting information from ODOT regarding the tree removal effort. It was during this time that Cascadia submitted its public records request. Since the hearings, public officials, environmental groups, and communities affected by the post-fire logging have called upon Governor Kate Brown to immediately pause the cutting and halt the excessive roadside logging occurring under the guise of hazard tree removal.

The post Press Release: CW Appeals ODOT’s $87,000 Bill for Post-Fire Hazard Tree Removal Public Records Request  first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contact:
Josh Laughlin, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 844-8182
Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity, (503) 484-7495
Bob Sallinger, Portland Audubon Society, (503) 380-9728
Tanya Sanerib, Crag Law Center, (503) 525-2722

The post Press Release: State of Oregon Suspends 10 State Forest Timber Sales in Marbled Murrelet Habitat first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.